This invention relates to a computer system in which a plurality of computers and a plurality of PCI devices are connected by a PCI switch, and more particularly, to management of a PCI switch.
PCI devices are conventionally mounted in slots in a computer, and hence the number of PCI devices which can be mounted is limited, and it is not necessary to centrally manage the PCI devices in a plurality of computers. However, the PCI Express Switch (hereinafter, referred to as PCIe SW) has recently been brought into practice as an I/O switch, and in a computer system employing the PCIe SW, a plurality of servers (blades) are connected to the PCIe SW, to which a large number of PCI devices are connected. As a result, PCI devices required by each of the servers can be flexibly assigned. The number of mounted PCI (or PCI Express) devices in the computer system in which the PCIe SW and the plurality of servers (blades) are mounted increases to several tens of times of the number in the conventional case. It should be noted that the PCI device is an I/O device compliant with the PCI or PCI Express standard.
It is necessary to manage the large number of PCI devices mounted on the PCIe SW, and to recognize information on the mounted PCI devices, assigned states thereof to the servers, and the like in order to properly assign a PCI device required by each of the servers in the computer system.
As a method of acquiring information on PCI devices in a computer system including an I/O switch, there is known a technology in which, when a new I/O device has been connected to the PCIe SW or when an I/O device has been replaced due to failure, a management server acquires information on the I/O device via a management interface of the I/O switch (refer to JP 2008-310489 A, for example).